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Rohit K.
Shukla is the chief executive officer of Larta Institute. Larta brings
together people, technology, and capital to drive the innovation process,
accelerating the transition of cutting-edge technologies to the marketplace.
Companies helped by Larta Institute have raised over $1.5 billion in capital.
Since 1993, Larta has served as the official commercialization agent for
the State of California, and now manages the nationwide Commercialization
Assistance Program for the National Institutes of Health.
As
a think tank, Larta Institute stands at the intersection of public
policy and private enterprise, and is a central point for assisting
companies and policymakers in California in meeting the challenges
of an evolving economy. Shukla is one of the most well-known public
figures in the technology economy in California, but his influence
goes beyond tech into areas of local government and governance,
infrastructure, education and training and economic transition,
including the current controversy surrounding outsourcing (and “offshoring”).
His expertise is also valued worldwide, and he has worked with foreign
governments, organizations and businesses in Sweden, Finland, Britain,
Germany, Italy, Eastern Europe, India, Japan, China, Taiwan, Israel,
Australia and the Far East. He has also developed the “Global
Bridge” program to facilitate enterprise-building and market
access programs, with client groups in Australia, Japan, Israel,
Sweden and Finland. The program is growing rapidly.
In
July, 2004, Larta Institute was selected, under Shukla’s
leadership, as its principal commercialization agent
by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The
multi-year program will feature hands-on coaching and
training in regulatory issues licensing and strategic
partnership strategies designed for grantees of funding
under the Small Business Innovation Program (SBIR)
Phase II.
In
1993, Shukla was deeply involved in the creation
of a well-known technology program in the State of
California, which established the regional technology
alliances (RTA’s), the California Technology
Partnership (or CalTIP) and a federal-State partnership
program to facilitate funding for both high-profile
and grass roots projects. The program operated successfully
under State funding from 1994 through 2003 as the State’s
principal agent on innovation in the State’s
largest region (which is also the 11th largest region
in the United States). Under Shukla’s direction,
Larta has become recognized worldwide as a convener
and facilitator, and as an active “incubator
without walls.” The organization has conducted
high-level research into industry and regional issues.
Since
the early 1990’s Shukla has produced a
range of research reports. He was the co-author of “Beyond
Consolidation” (on the redeployment of defense
and aerospace assets in California, and the changing
economy that followed the period of downsizing), the
well-received “Hollywood Unstrung” reports
on the impact of digital technologies on the entertainment
industry and its implications for the economy of entertainment,
the equally well-known Sand Dollar Reports (on investment
and innovation), the nation’s first Nanotechnology
Yellow Pages and Report, the Technology Innovation
Index, which mapped innovation indicators in Southern
California, the Federal Technology Funding Guide, now
in its 6th year, and many reports on such sectors as
bioinformatics, semiconductors, wireless technology
and medical devices, as well as knowledge-based issues
such as technology transfer and commercialization.
Shukla
also established and continues to manage the annual
Southern California Technology Venture Forum,
focused on providing “guided entrepreneurship” assistance
to companies seeking private investment capital, and
Project T2, devoted to technology transfer. Reflecting
the organization’s attention and focus on technology
transfer to the marketplace from the rich ground of
research in California, Shukla just Larta under Shukla
announced this month (March 2004) the creation of Network
T2, the largest consortium of universities and research
institutions in the country, which serves as a conduit
for collaborative projects, a training ground for spin-offs
from universities, and a calling card to global industry
and academic players.
.
Prior to founding Larta, Shukla served, from 1991-94,
as director of aerospace and high technology business
at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.
He oversaw an ambitious program funded by the federal
Economic Development Administration, the first federally-funded ‘defense
adjustment’ program in the country.
Shukla
has worked in high technology industry since 1983,
first as an entrepreneur and founder of his own
small company providing database and communications
solutions and devices, and later, from 1989-1991 as
the executive director of The Presidents’ Roundtable,
a mentor group of CEOs from defense and aerospace companies
throughout the U.S., based in Los Angeles. That group
included such leading figures as Peter Drucker, Bill
Perry (who later became Secretary of Defense) and Mal
Currie (then CEO of Hughes Aircraft Company, who later
became co-chair of Project California).
In
April, 1999, he was named by the Los Angeles Times
as one of the “Tech Coast 10 To Watch.” He
has also been named to the “Who’s Who of
High Technology” by the Los Angeles Business
Journal, been inducted into the International Who’s
Who of Entrepreneurs and has received numerous awards
and citations. He has served on the boards of several
institutions including the Integrated Media Systems
Center at the University of Southern California, the
Caltech/MIT Enterprise Forum, EC2, The Annenberg Incubator
Project at the University of Southern California, the
Digital Coast Roundtable and The Indus Entrepreneurs
(TiE).
In
October 1997 Shukla was appointed by then Los Angeles
Mayor Richard Riordan to both the Board of Information
Technology Commissioners and a special blue ribbon
task force on communications infrastructure for the
City of Los Angeles. He co-authored the report for
the City’s adoption of a streamlined telecommunications
policy. He is widely quoted for his views in the media,
has been a frequent guest on KWHY-TV, the Investment
Channel, has been featured on such shows as the Lehrer
News Hour, and in such news publications as the Los
Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Wall Street
Journal, Wired magazine, CIO magazine, Forbes and Silicon
India. He speaks frequently before private and public
audiences in the U.S. and overseas, and has been a
frequent guest of regional and national governments
in Scandinavia, Western Europe, the Far East and all
over the United States.
Shukla holds a Masters in Social and Political Sciences
from Cambridge University and a Masters in Communications
Arts from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.
He is a U.S. citizen and has been a resident of Los
Angeles since 1979.
Partial
list of keynote speaking engagements, for the following
groups and organizations:
Nokia
Medicon Valley
Red Herring
Wired
Oracle
Boeing
Raytheon
IBM, London and IBM White Plains, NY
National Institutes of Health
Economic Development Administration (Clinton Administration)
NASA
Stockholm Promise
Swedish Office of Science and Technology
BusinessACT, Canberra
JETRO, Japan
Digital Coast Roundtable, Los Angeles
OECD/Lombardi, Italy
Tekes/Finnish Office of Science and Technology
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